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Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School 

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In school settings, writing is often perceived and enacted as a gatekeeping device. . . . Writing instruction and assessments also serve as gatekeeping devices when they are built around deficit notions surrounding students’ languages and literacies. Narrow definitions of and attitudes about writing and language too often perpetuate white, Eurocentric ideologies about what it means to write “well” or “effectively” (Chavez, 2021), upholding racist and linguistic barriers and inequities for students whose writing does not easily assimilate to dominant norms.(NCTE, 2022)

The way writing is perceived in educational settings has far-reaching implications. Despite extensive research, misconceptions about writing persist. Overall, NCTE's statement addresses school administrators, policymakers, and educators by highlighting issues in how writing is taught and offering solutions. Challenges include test-driven curricula, narrow definitions of writing, and dominant language ideologies. Recommendations emphasize a culture of authentic and culturally sustaining writing instruction, faculty support, and recognition of students' linguistic diversity. NCTE's goal is to empower young writers and break harmful instructional norms.

Using the Lenses of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Antiracist Writing Assessment to Foster a Culture of Authentic and Culturally Sustaining Writing Instruction: My Add-Ons

Promote curriculum and instruction that broaden definitions of writing to include visual, aural, and multimodal compositions and to include a wider variety of purposes for writing (e.g., writing to discover, writing for change, writing to learn, writing to reflect).

Digital tools are perfect for this! For example, in Batchelor's article " Using Linked Text Sets to Promote Advocacy and Agency Through a Critical Lens," pre-service teachers use Padlet to present their linked text sets for self-reflection. This is a fantastic idea for ELA lessons because it incorporates visual, aural, and multimodal compositions to enhance student thinking about a particular area of student interest and inquiry research. Check out this example: https://padlet.com/stephetm/blacklivesmatter-sg1kudvws75y.

Advocate for writing instruction that is process- (rather than product-) oriented and that invites students to become writers who (1) write for authentic purposes and (2) make authentic choices about processes and products.

The Antiracist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez is a great resource for secondary ELA educators who are looking to disrupt their traditional practice. This book provides several methods of writing instruction through workshop that values the process rather than the product. Chavez emphasizes the importance of writing in community and how fostering an environment of love can help student writing significantly. Chavez's work asks: How can we humanize writing?

Make writing a collective responsibility and a collaborative activity across faculty and academic departments by fostering writing-across-the-curriculum and writing support programs, such as writing centers, writing groups, and peer coaching, for student writers and writing teachers.

I think that even within secondary ELA departments there is not enough collaboration centered on student writing. This problem is worsened by attention to standardized test scores rather than the process of writing itself. When ELA teachers do not work together to ensure that writing curriculum isn't repetitive, we do a great disservice to our students. I think the most common thing that I hear from students is that their ELA courses do not help them grow as writers. Students had higher expectations for their English teachers; however, they were met with worksheets, boring & repetitive lectures, and redundant testing practice. So, how can we secondary ELA educators improve our writing curriculum to challenge students to experiment with writing and experience new growth? Is it possible to teach to the test while simultaneously encouraging students to disrupt the writing status quo? The answer: Yes!

Recognize and value the cultural and linguistic assets writers bring to their texts by highlighting published writing and student writing reflecting diverse perspectives, voices, experiences, and linguistic practices.

YA Literature, Student Blogs, and Multi-Genre/Multimodal Projects are all great tools to accomplish this task

I aim to have a diverse library designed to provide mirrors, windows, & sliding glass doors for all students. More specifically, I hope to have a huge selection of YA texts for students to read independently. Also, I think that YA novels make great mentor texts for students who need inspiration when writing personal narratives. YA centers on the adolescent experience! And unfortunately, not many high school curriculums teach YA. Teaching YA is so important because 1) students may be unfamiliar with the YA genre, 2) students may have only been exposed to canonical classics that do not reflect their lived experiences, 3) the writing of YA texts is accessible to teens and provides them with a more palatable mentor text when compared to academic articles, classics, or historical nonfiction texts.

Also, as many YA novels provide a positive representation of translanguaging, I hope that bilingual/multilingual students can use these books to compose their own linguistically diverse writing. Moreover, sharing student writing like this with the class and the school community can work to disrupt "racist and linguistic barriers and inequities for students whose writing does not easily assimilate to dominant norms" (Chavez, 2021).

(NCTE, 2022)

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Opinion: Teachers Tired of Fighting Cellphones in Classrooms

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"In this school, the administration has listened to teachers. They have created a policy that makes student cellphones unavailable during class. The change has been difficult for kids and their parents, but it's been a godsend to teachers tired of spending much of their time and emotional energy trying to get kids' attention." (Downey, 2022)

Inquiry Questions:

Is student access to cellphones now viewed as a right?

How does cellphone addiction impact school culture & community?

How do issues of school safety create positive or negative relationships with cellphones?

Did COVID-19 impact student engagement? If so, how can educators use digital tools & social media to reimagine student learning?

My current student-teaching placement is at a 1:1 school where students are provided with their own PLD (personal learning device), which is a Chromebook. Students keep these devices from freshman to senior year, even during the summer. I consider myself fortunate to work at a school that offers this resource to all its students. However, this year, the district has introduced a new cellphone policy that has generated dissatisfaction among both students and parents.

Personally, I can see merit in both sides of this argument. Throughout my educational journey, which included private, charter, and public schools, there was consistently a stringent cellphone policy in place. The expectation was that I would either hand over my cellphone to my teachers at the start of each class, or there were designated cellphone pouches. As a student, I favored the cellphone pouches because I had my assigned number, allowing me to monitor my phone during class. As a teacher, I still find cellphone pouches to be the most effective method, but it works best with self-managing classes. I attempted this approach with my first, second, and third periods, but it didn't suit all students. Some students viewed the pouches as an option, despite my clear explanation that I was using them for attendance. Eventually, I had to abandon this method and began collecting phones in a plastic bin for one particular period, storing it in a closet during class. This illustrates that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work because each class is unique. Educators must be able to adapt and embrace flexibility.

Moreover, flexibility and reflection skills enable English Language Arts (ELA) educators to experiment with digital tools and social media in the classroom. Not every lesson will fail, nor will every lesson succeed. Nevertheless, we must be open to trying new things to incorporate students' digital literacies into the learning process. We should view their digital literacies as an asset to the classroom and broader learning. The world around us is evolving and so should our pedagogy.

In conclusion, I intend to use digital tools and social media through student cellphone use purposefully and frequently. My goal is to make learning enjoyable and challenge traditional ELA teaching practices. Undoubtedly, I will encounter numerous challenges along the way, but the aim is for students to learn how to use their technology meaningfully to enhance their learning. Students can effectively use their cellphones to explore both the world and written content. Students should be taught how to use their cellphones to read both the world and the word.

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The Future of CHATGPT and AI in the ELA Classroom

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The Future of CHATGPT and AI in the ELA Classroom

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Just like the internet transformed our teaching, so will AI writing generators.

How can we use AI to better student writing?
Some Suggestions from the Text:

1. Have students generate an AI response with a writing prompt. Ask them to IMPROVE the AI’s response. Have them make it better by adding their own opinions and research to it.

2. Have students copy their first draft into ChatGPT and ask for grammar and writing tips. It can give feedback about improving sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and consistency.

3. Use ChatGPT to generate mentor texts. It loves to use the five-paragraph essay format. But you can direct it to write in any style you wish.
(Orman, 2023)

Other Ideas:
Disrupting the Traditional Literary Analysis Essay
Encourage students to utilize ChatGPT for generating thesis statements based on an essay prompt and then challenge them to craft their own unique thesis.

Teaching Rhetoric & Argumentative Writing
Ask students to generate an argumentative essay with ChatGPT on a particular topic and then have students evaluate the credibility of arguments and the effectiveness of language choices. (SPACE CAT)

Narrative Writing
Use ChatGPT as a teacher to model think-aloud & brainstorming for narrative writing. Ask AI to generate a random setting, group of characters, types of conflict, and resolution. Then challenge students to use these same ideas to write entirely different stories (e.g., students can work in small groups or independently). The teacher will give students 5-10 minutes to write each part (setting, characters, conflict(s), resolution). Afterward, the teacher should read aloud all of the different stories and encourage students to collect data on similarities and differences with graphic organizers.

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A Raisin in the Sun is one of my favorite plays, and I have the opportunity to teach it this year in my 11th-grade American Literature course. I chose to search for the words: money, proud, dreams, and lord.

According to the data, these words all frequently appeared throughout the book. However, the frequency of the word proud was the most interesting to analyze. While the word "proud" was not used at all in Act 1, the data shows that its frequency increased thereafter in every following act.

For those who have read "A Raisin in the Sun," this data should not be surprising. The central conflict of the play arises when the Younger family receives a $10,000 insurance check following the death of the patriarch, and each member has different aspirations for how to use this money. However, the conflict is resolved when Mama uses the money to purchase a new home for the family. The Younger family has many reasons to be proud, such as Ruth's pregnancy, Beneatha's academic success and her goal to become a doctor, and the strong familial love and support they share. However, the family's proudest moment occurs in the play's final scene when they stand by Mama's decision to buy a new home, even if it is in a racially segregated, all-white neighborhood. In the end, the family overcomes the racist neighborhood association and achieves the American Dream.

Walter: "We have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick. We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors. And that’s all we got to say about that. We don’t want your money." (Hansberry, 1997)

Overall, I love this use of data! I think that it would be an excellent hook for a lesson toward the end of any whole-class novel study. Using Plotting Points can spark student interest in research for a book project or a literary analysis essay. I think that it would be so fun to see what four words students come up with when they finish reading a particular novel, and I will definitely be using this tool in the near future!

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Batchelor, K.E. (2019). Using Linked Text Sets to Promote Advocacy and Agency Through a Critical Lens. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(4), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.906.
Downey, M. (2022). Opinion: Teachers Tired of Fighting Cellphones in Classrooms. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. https://www.ajc.com/education/get-schooled-blog/opinion-teachers-tired-of-fighting-cellphones-in-classrooms/DTWOAIPZ7FDHTEYGRAZYJYUGDI/.
Hansberry, L. (1997). A Raisin in the Sun. Random House.
Lynch, T. L. (2023, July 30). Plotting Plots | Book Lovers Who Like Data. Plotting Plots. https://plottingplots.com/plots/.
NCTE. Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School. National Council of Teachers of English. (2022). https://ncte.org/statement/statement-on-writing-instruction-in-school/.
Orman, T. (2023). The Future of Chatgpt and AI in the ELA Classroom. The Secondary English Coffee Shop. https://secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-future-of-chatgpt-and-ai-in-ela.html.